Re: support vessels

[VBra676539@aol.com]

I once sat on the bottom of the North Sea in 280 fsw and watched the submarine swing over 8 feet driven by pressure from wave action. That's 8 feet that way and 8 feet back. PC9 is 13 tons of submarine and it was hard to keep from spilling my coffee. That's bad.

As to submarines for support vessels, forget it. We worked in the most lucrative market for manned submersibles in the history of the world and couldn't afford to operate even an old diesel boat as a mother ship. We spent a bunch of francs investigating the possibilities, and there are just too many specialists needed to operate one, and too much equipment to maintain. Subs are the most expensive ship to operate, bar none. It works good in the penny-dreadfuls but reality is in the bank books. No way.

Vance